1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a permanent, personal information carrier for placement on a tooth, and, more particularly, to such a carrier in which the information of said carrier is directly readable by means of a standard dental X-ray radiographs or the like and method of using same.
2. Description of the Related Art Including Information Disclosed Under 37 CFR 1.97-1.99
There are numerous techniques known for permanently marking a person by permanently affixing an information carrier to the person identified. There are two known basic techniques of affixing the carrier to the person, and they both usually employ means for attaching the carrier to a tooth because of its relative durability and accessibility. In the first technique, the carrier is inserted into either a naturally occurring cavity resulting from drilling out unwanted decay or a manufactured cavity resulting from drilling out a healthy tooth, which is then filled with a filler to protectively seal the information carrier within the cavity. This provides maximum protection for the carrier.
Disadvantageously, with this first technique, it has not been known how to conceal the presence of the carrier while at the same time enabling reading of the carrier without the wearer undergoing intrusive invasive surgery of drilling the tooth to have the required cavity to hold the information carrier. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,044,955 issued to Jagmin on Sep. 3, 1991, a radiographically detectable carrier is installed in a cavity in the side of a person's tooth which is filled with a radiolucent composite filler to protectively seal the carrier within the cavity. The filler is visually opaque and matches the color of the surrounding tooth surface which conceals the presence of the personal information carrier. This carrier is readable by X-ray machines without the need to excavate the tooth. This enables reading the information without first excavating the carrier while still concealing the presence of the carrier, but, disadvantageously, the tooth must be drilled to have the required cavity to hold the information carrier and this results in intrusive invasive surgery for the wearer.
A principal problem with requiring intrusive invasive surgery to insert the carrier to the tooth arises primarily in the case of people who are unwilling to undergo intrusive surgery to have the carrier inserted into their tooth. In those instances, if the person is unwilling to undergo surgery, in all likelihood, the person will refuse to have the carrier inserted and there will be no possibility of identification of the person at a later date.
In the second known technique, information carrying marks or other indicia are attached onto the surface of the tooth. This enables reading the information without first excavating the carrier and securing the carrier without any intrusive invasive surgery. Disadvantageously, the carrier is not radiographically readable, therefore, special experience and special code reading devices are required to read the carrier and these devices are not conveniently located in medical or dental clinics to read the information. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,557,693 issued to Elggren on Dec. 10, 1985, a carrier attached to the lingual surface, or tongue side, surface of a tooth, with a clear polymer placed over the carrier, can be read through use of a special electronic photo-optical reader and not through conventional X-ray devices. Similarly, in International Patent No. WO 86/00213 issued to Maxwell et al. on Jan. 16, 1986, a disc made of photographic film carries the identifying indicia and the disc is radiotransparent or radiotranslucent under X-rays so it cannot be read by conventional X-ray devices. Also, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,925,896 issued to McDowell on Dec. 16, 1975, coded tines are inlaid into a surface of a tooth at selected radial positions to encode identifying information and once the pattern is placed in the dental work, the code may be read by photographing and enlarging the pattern and placing an overlay over the enlarged portion. The code can not be concealed and still be readable without invasive surgery on the tooth.
In this second known technique, information carrying marks or other indicia are attached onto the surface of the tooth which enables reading the information without first excavating the carrier and securing the carrier without any intrusive invasive surgery, but disadvantageously, the presence of the carrier cannot be concealed because it is not radiographically readable. A principal problem with not concealing the presence of the carrier from casual visual inspection arises primarily in the case of kidnapping. In those instances, if the kidnapper discovers the presence of an identification marking on a child, in all likelihood, the carrier will be removed, perhaps by removing the entire tooth. If the carrier is not detected and removed, then it may be detected in the course of routine dental X-rays which can then be reported to the appropriate authorities.